copula
Americannoun
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something that connects or links together.
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Also called linking verb. Grammar. a verb, as be, seem, or look, that serves as a connecting link or establishes an identity between subject and complement.
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Logic. a word or set of words that acts as a connecting link between the subject and predicate of a proposition.
noun
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a verb, such as be, seem, or taste, that is used merely to identify or link the subject with the complement of a sentence. Copulas may serve to link nouns (or pronouns), as in he became king, nouns (or pronouns) and adjectival complements, as in sugar tastes sweet, or nouns (or pronouns) and adverbial complements, as in John is in jail
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anything that serves as a link
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logic the often unexpressed link between the subject and predicate terms of a categorial proposition, as are in all men are mortal
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of copula
1640–50; < Latin cōpula, equivalent to co- co- + ap- fasten ( see apt) + -ula -ule
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In one episode the shirtless tribal leader Khal Drogo delivered a monologue for two and a half minutes in Dothraki, with its subject-verb-object structure and no copula, or linking verb.
From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2011
If it must not be left out altogether, and we cannot put it with the copula, we have a choice between the two terms.
From Logic, Inductive and Deductive by Minto, William
We say ‘murder is death to the perpetrator’ where the copula is brings; ‘two and two are four,’ the copula being ‘have the value of,’ etc.”
From The philosophy of B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll by Various
Relative.—In this system the formal relation is taken, that is, the copula may be any whatever.
From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I by Smith, David Eugene
In such a case as this, the verb expresses predication and nothing else, and is called a copula.
From Hume (English Men of Letters Series) by Huxley, Thomas Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
